The Red Sox' Tenth Man, Joe Maddon 

Many of us just witnessed one of the most embarrassing losses of the years for the Tampa Bay Rays. They had the game in their hands and they gave it away. I am very careful not to say that they let it slip away because they in fact gave it away. To be more precise, Joe Maddon gave it away.  

Why in Heaven's name was Grant Balfour still in the game after he gave up his second hit in the seventh? Why was Dan Wheeler still in the game after the second runner reached base in the eighth? In case you didn't notice, the Rays had lefty J.P. Howell ready in the bullpen on both occasions. That is not to mention two other lefties who could have been ready in Trever Miller and the much-heralded David Price. I don't even think that Chad Bradford even picked up a ball in the bullpen tonight and he is the highest paid pitcher on the staff.   

The Rays lost the first game of this series 2 - 1 and I believe Maddon was responsible for that simply because he didn't give his team a chance to win. Late in the game he had runners on first and third with no outs and didn't do anything. Dice-K was almost unhittable that night and the Rays were down 1 - 0. Cliff Floyd was the runner on first and Maddon let him run when he had Fernando Perez in the dugout. He let hitters hit with a 3 - 0 count, and they failed. He had two chances to bring in the tying run with a safety squeeze first and a suicide squeeze if that failed. If the Rays had scored that run, they would have continued the game with a tie score and had proof that they could score a run against Matsuzaka. 

I have so totally enjoyed BoltBacker's "Name That Movie" series that I decided to challenge him with some of my favorite sports movie quotes.

Give it your best shot!

1. Despite my rejection of most Judeo-Christian ethics, I am within the framework of a baseball season, monogamous.

2. I never should have left the lingerie business, I was the happiest man in womens underwear.

3. He's not gonna wanna load the bases. So look low and away...but watch out for in your ear.

4. Sex and golf are the two things you can enjoy even if you are not good at them.

5. Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs.

6. I've never seen a team this bad! Half the players are smaller than monkey cajones, the other half are slower than smoke off shit. Where did you get these turds?

7. I, uh, yeh, I, uh.....I freely admit sir, I had no right to sell off the teams equipment like that. That won't happen again.

8. Sure you got drunk. You have the best excuse in the world for losing; no trouble losing when you got a good excuse. Winning...that can be heavy on your back too, like a monkey. You'll drop that load too when you've got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. One of the best indoor sports; feeling sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all, especially the born losers.

9. We will be perfect in every aspect of the game. You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You fumble the football and I will break my foot off in your John Brown hind parts and then you will run a mile.

10. I'm gonna open his hole like this. Please excuse my French. I'm gonna make him suffer. I'm gonna make his mother wish she never had him...make him into dog meat. He's a nice...a nice kid. He's a pretty kid too. I mean, I don't know. I gotta problem if I should f**k him or fight him

BONUS QUESTION:

"It's the old, old story. Boy meets girl - Romeo and Juliet - Minneapolis and St. Paul."

I'll check back too see how you are all doing.

Good Luck!

        Rays Rants (and more):

I watched the Rays work out at the Naimoli complex last spring and knew I was looking at something special. This group of guys was not cut from the same cloth that as the groups from the previous 10 years. I sensed the change and I started writing about it. Yesterday I checked back on my Rays blogs from the past year and was shocked as to how accurate some of my observations were. 

Last fall the Devil Rays for the 9th time in ten years finished last in the league and I wrote a blog that stated that it just didn't feel like last place. I guess it was then that I officially jumped on the band-wagon that bloggers like so much to talk about. 

On January 5th, I stated that Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett would make everyone forget that Delmon young ever played here. On the same day I stated that Andrew Friedman's plan for development was almost flawless. (Correct)   

On April 14th, I wrote that the Rays pitching staff would have to be reckoned with this year. On the same blog I said that the Rays would win 88 games and the pitching would be the reason. (They won more than 88) 

On April 25th, I said that the Red Sox would win the AL east with room to spare but the Rays had the ability to catch the Wild Card. (Got this one backwards)  

On April 28th, I stated that Stuart Sternberg was in the same class as John Henry and George Steinbrenner when it came to his desire to put a successful product on the field. He just didn't have the same cash flow. (Correct)   

On May 1st, I wrote that the Rays had too many quality pitchers. There just wasn't enough room for all of them. As a result of that statement being correct, the Rays lost reliable relievers Gary Glover, Kurt Birkens, Scott Dohmann and Al Reyes. Jeff Niemann got called up for 2 spot starts but couldn't stay when others got healthy. David Price, Wade Davis and Mitch Talbot never got called up during the season and Price, Niemann and Talbot only got called up in September. (Correct)   

On May 19th, I stated that the Rays and the Red Sox would play in the American League championship series. I also said that the Yankees were done mainly because of the suspect pitching, their age and the fact that Girardi was not now, nor was he ever going to be Joe Torre. However, on that same blog I said that the Indians would get it together and win the Central and the Tigers couldn't stay that bad for much longer. I guess nobody is perfect. To prove that point, It was the very next day that I implied that "Merlot" Joe Maddon wasn't the guy who should lead this team. turns out (Almost correct; the Indians and Tigers never got started and Joe Maddon turned out to be the guy)  

On May 27th I wrote that the Rays were for real and no matter what the "experts" said, they were not going away. (Correct) 

On June 23rd, I complained that the Rays' success was interfering with my creature comforts, as the increased attendance was causing me to have to remain in the seat I paid for rather than roam around and sit wherever I wanted to sit; to wait in lines when making a pit stop; and trying to get a warm hot dog without missing a whole inning. (Absolutely correct) 

I should stop here because so far I look like a genius. The real fact is that I did make some statements that didn't turn out to be correct. 

I stated that Ben Zobrist was a waste of time when he turned out to be the "Super-sub" that Maddon had predicted he would be. (Wrong)  

In a moment of frustration, I did say that the Rays wouldn't compete in the post season because they didn't have a legitimate star to carry them. (Very Wrong)   

In June I said that the Rays would only have one all-star representative and that would be the token one because every team had to have at least one player on the team. Boy, was I wrong there. They had three. Kazmir got the win and Longoria and Navarro played about 8 innings each and were both significant contributors to the AL victory.  

If I had to grade myself for all of the statements I made during the year I would give myself a B-. And the minus only gets there because I started to lose faith during the 7 game losing streak around the All-Star break. I think I am most proud of myself because I saw this coming last spring when none of these guys had even thrown a ball or swung a bat in anger. 

The fabulous Cindy and I attended the Rays Playoff Rally at Straub Park in St. Petersburg on Monday afternoon. I'm generally not inclined to take part in this sort of event but Cindy wanted to go. It was just another reminder of how much joy I would have missed in my life if I didn't have Cindy to get me off my dead ass and participate in life.   

The event was thoroughly enjoyable. It was easy to get there. The parking was affordable and getting out of town was easy. My only regret was that the line to get a "Rayhawk" haircut was so long that I couldn't wait for a free one. I guess I am going to have to pay for it.   

Todd Kalas did a great job in player introductions, Duane Staats and Joe Magraine were terrific in recapping the year and even though some folks stared at the Red Sox tattoo on Cindy's leg, nobody said anything because of her Rays hat and tee shirt. My Sox tattoo is high enough on my arm so the sleeve of my Rays tee shirt covered it. We didn't stay for the Survivor concert but friends who did said it was great.  

My friend, New Jerseys own Blue & Orange has been baiting me all year long to make a definitive statement as to who I would root for when nuts came to bolts. It's about that time so here is the statement.   

I never ever thought that I would get to see the Red Sox win a World Championship; but they did in 2004. They did it again last year but that couldn't come close to the elation that I felt after the first one. I have experienced something that my father, my brother Bobby, my uncles Irving and Charlie and my father-in-law, Bob Cobb never got to experience. I got to experience a Red Sox World Championship. I can live the rest of my life in peace. 

However, this year has to belong to the Rays. When the White Sox visit Tropicana Field tomorrow, I will be displaying the Blue of the Rays. And if the Gods are just and the Red Sox come to the Trop for the American League Championship series, I will still display the Rays Blue shirt.

Rays Rants (and more):

I was reading the St. Pete Times this morning when I came across a story that had the following quote in it.  

"We don't have anyone to throw out the ball for our first playoff game," Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman said. "MLB asked us who it'd be. We realized nobody in the history of the franchise had done anything to be worthy of the honor."  

This is what it has come to. The improbable Tampa Bay Rays are about to engage in the American league Playoffs for the first time in their eleven-year history and there is nobody from the organization's past worthy enough to throw out the first pitch of the opening game. I was taken aback when I read this quote. How can there not be somebody from the past eleven years to be worthy enough to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the playoffs?   

I decided to do some research in order to help Mr. Silverman find somebody with the proper qualifications to perform this prestigious task. Alas, I discovered that he has a major problem on his desk. The Rays don't have Babe Ruth's daughter to fall back on. They don't have a Yogi Berra; a Rod Carew; a Yaz; a Ken Brett; a Johnny Bench; a Tom Seaver; a Bob Gibson; a Ron Santo or any one else who might have helped get them to the promised land in the past; mainly because they have never been to the Promised Land in the past and in fact, have never been close. 

They don't have a revered "Hall-Of-Famer" to fall back on unless you consider Wade Boggs to be that and most folks don't even remember that he finished his career with the Rays. Even venerable players from the past don't qualify. Vinnie Castilla had five 30+ home run seasons and four 100+ RBI seasons, but none of them with the Rays. Jose Canseco has 462 career homers and is famous but nobody would be stupid enough to pick him. 

There is nobody from the front office that deserves the honor who isn't currently affiliated with the team. Vince Naimoli thankfully brought the team to the Bay area but in eight years did more to alienate the community against the Rays than any of their bad baseball teams did. Naimoli is definitely out. Don Zimmer would seem like a great pick with his 60+ years of being in baseball. But he is currently on the payroll. 

It's amazing! In the whole history of this team there is no one who stands out enough to qualify for this position. I guess Matt will have to look outside of the organization. Now there we have some qualified people. Governor Charley Crist is a relatively frequent visitor to the Trop. Paul Azinger just won the Ryder Cup for the United States and is a local. My choice however would be for Dick Vitale. Dickey V has been a season ticket holder from day one. His shiny baldhead can be seen in the first row next to the visitor's dugout about fifty times a year. He could even be seen there during the ten dreadful years before this one. He does in-house promotional spots on the big screen. Yep...Dicky V would be my choice.

Of course I'd prefer that they select Duane Staats to make the historical toss. Staats has been the TV announcer for the Rays for most of the dismal years and wouldn't you know, when the Rays clinched a spot in the playoffs, he had the night off. FOX did the game and there was no local broadcast. Announcers are an integral part of baseball marketing. I can still hear Curt Gowdey broadcasting the Red Sox games when I was a boy. What Yankee fan my age does not remember Mel Allen or Dodger fan, Vin Scully? What Red Sox fan does not know whom the "Rem_Dog" is? There are a lot more of them that I never got to hear but it would be the right thing to do for Duane Staats.   

As I was researching this I thought of the movie "Major League". There is a scene where two Japanese groundskeepers were speaking and made the comment (which appeared in sub-titles), "Who are these guys?" That is the same thought I had when looking over the current roster. 

Has anybody outside of Milwaukee ever heard of Grant Balfour or Gabe Gross? Has anybody except a statistic geek Dodger fan ever heard of Dioner Navarro or Edwin Jackson? Has anybody outside of Minnesota ever heard of Jason Bartlett or Matt Garza? Did Andy Sonnanstine catch anyone's eye when he was drafted in the 13th round of the 2004 draft? Does anybody from Atlanta remember Willy Aybar? Did anybody notice that at the same time the Red Sox signed Dice-K, the Rays Quietly signed Akinori Iwamura? Did anybody in Kansas City miss J.P. Howell when he came to the Rays last year for Joey Gathright? Did anybody in Baltimore blink an eye when Chad Bradford was released? Did everyone feel that when the Rays reacquired Dan Wheeler that it was going to be more of the same old, same old? Do you think that the Phillies, Dodgers, Red Sox, Reds and Astros wished that they had Trever Miller in their bullpens this year? They all owned his rights at one time or another.   

The fact is, the only Rays anybody ever heard of before this season was Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena, and the Rangers, Athletics, Tigers, Yankees and Red Sox cast off Pena at one time or another.  

During the off season last year the names most people knew on the Rays were David Price and Evan Longoria; and neither of those guys had played even one inning of Major League baseball. 

"Recognizing his nearly six decades of service as a player, manager, scout, instructor, and goodwill ambassador, the Red Sox yesterday announced they will retire Johnny Pesky's No. 6 before Friday night's game against the Yankees, the eve of his 89th birthday."  

 http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185143625/bctid1813547254    

You can't imagine how elated I was when I read the above item in the Boston Globe the other day. Johnny Pesky is one of the special people who have ever worn the Red Sox uniform and will be the first Red Sox player to have his Uniform number retired who was not a member of the hall of Fame.. About a year or so ago I wrote a blog about Pesky and got some great comments on it.

Way to go Red Sox! 

Rays Rants (and more): 

It always amazes me how the best-laid plans can get sidetracked. I thought I had my schedule all set for the last month of the baseball season. I was going to watch the upstart Rays cruise into the American league playoffs and I had my seat picked out for every game. I even had my subjects picked out for my Rays Rants blogs for about a three-week period.  

Family matters in Boston caused me to table those plans but I assure you that my arriving in Bean Town last week on the same day as the Rays was just a coincidence. The trip had nothing at all to do with the fact that I got to see the Rays take 2 of 3 games from the Sox and hold them off for a while longer. It had to do with attending to family matters.  

It was fascinating to watch my friends in Boston walking around with a look on their faces that screamed, "This is not supposed to happen". At least it is not supposed to happen at the hands of the (Devil) Rays. Maybe the Yankees, maybe the Blue Jays, but not the Rays.  

I arrived back in Florida a few days ago with just enough time to get my affairs in order and go back to the airport. This time I had to pick up my daughter and her husband who were coming to town to see the Red Sox play the Rays in the final series of the year. Now if you want to talk about Red Sox fanatics, you need to talk about these 2 people. We have 3 games here and my daughter brought 8 Red Sox shirts with her. She even brought me a pair of gardening gloves with the Sox logo on the back. 

It is always great to have them here and this trip had been planned for a long time. However, I expected to attend the games at the Trop as a family firmly attached to the Red Sox Nation. I hadn't figured that I would be the one to go over to the "dark side" and become a member of the Rays Republic. But there it was; my wife, my daughter and her husband all decked out in their Red Sox gear and me with my James Shields Rays t-shirt. And to make matters worse, Sox fans surrounded us. I was the blue shirt amid a sea of red. And to make matters worse than that, the Red Sox came to play. On Scott Kazmir's second strike of the game, Big Papi hits a 3-run homer and it was all down hill from there. It got so bad that I had to leave my seat and sit under the stands for about 5 innings eating hot dogs and ice cream, smoking cigarettes and watching people. I would have gone home by the 5th inning but I was driving and they weren't budging. It was a long, long night. 

Every morning the sun rises and yesterday morning was no different. The sun rose and it was a new day. Yesterday was yesterday and the fact that the Sox hit 6 home runs and Dice-K was almost unhittable the night before didn't matter so much. The Red Sox were sending Josh Beckett to the bump and the Rays were countering that move with the formidable Andy Sonnanstine. On paper, that meant that the Red Sox would be in first place this morning. But I guess that Sonny doesn't read the paper. He matched Beckett pitch for pitch for six innings before giving way to the Rays' (I'm sorry, but I can't come up with one adjective to properly describe perfection) bullpen.  

The game was tied going into the bottom half of the ninth but there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to have the bragging rights when the game was over and the Rays didn't disappoint. A bloop hit, a walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases when Dioner Navarro hit a ball to center field deep enough to score the run from third and give the Rays the win. The Rays stay in first place, 2 games up in the lost column. If the Red Sox do manage to overtake the Rays for the AL East championship, they won't have done it on head to head match ups.  

Tonight's game won't be nearly as stressful for me as the first two. Even if the Sox win they will still leave town in second place. It will be sad to see the kids go home on Thursday but I think my son-in-law will go home with some hope for the post season. He said last night that if the Red Sox don't make the World Series he at least has someone to root for in the Rays. The Rays Republic is growing by the minute. 

I need to offer an apology to my friend B&O languishing in frustration up in New Jersey because of his beloved Mets' failure to close out the National League East in the last two weeks. It was just about two weeks ago when I assured my friend that I could write enough words on the Rays to divert his attention from the struggles his team was having to just stay in the race. But take heart B&O; there are 12 games left and I've got a feeling.... 

I find it fascinating that in the year 2008, the most stable franchise in baseball seems to be the Rays. The Yankees have been old and confused all year. The Red Sox haven't been physically healthy all year and their mental health was suspect until they shipped out Manny. The Dodgers mental health was suspect until they acquired Manny. Go figure! The Indians haven't made sense all year; they are not a last place team. The Jays, Mets, Brewers and Mariners all changed managers and 3 of those teams still have playoff chances.  The Tigers were the team to beat in the spring and managed to self-destruct from the beginning. Are the Twins there because everyone else is so bad or are they for real? How can the White Sox look stable with Ozzie at the helm? The Cubs seem quite stable but we keep reading about their potential sale. The Pirates have mastered the art of rebuilding. How did the Rockies get into the World Series last year? Or better still, what the heck did they do to miss it by so much this year?   

I have to admit it. I have jumped on the Dustin Pedroia bandwagon for MVP. Up until about 2 weeks ago my pick would have been Justin Morneau or Carlos Quentin. Quentin got eliminated with his injury but Morneau has only continued to deserve consideration. However, after seeing the Red Sox 5 times in the last 2 weeks, I am convinced that the Red Sox are what they are because of Pedroia. He makes them go. He may be the most exciting ballplayer in the American League.  

 I saw a video from the Red Sox clubhouse yesterday. It had David Ortiz doing an interview with Jonathan Papelbon while they showed the videotape from his high School days imitating Patrick Swayze. I found the whole thing entertaining except the part when Ortiz referred to Pap as Cinco Ocho. It somehow offended me that anybody buys into Chad Johnson's crap.